Police officers are never truly ‘off-duty’ – and rookie officer Kiran Patel showed why just weeks into his new public service career when he leapt to the aid of a child knocked down on a busy dual-carriageway.

PC Patel was on a rest day having dropped his mum at work when traffic ground to a halt in New John Street West, Hockley, and the screams of fellow motorists alerted him to a schoolboy lying in the road.